Caring and sharing

Did you know that hospitals, as we know them today, were first established by early Muslims. They offered the best available medical service at that time and cared for all people free of charge. Muslims are honour-bound to provide treatment for the sick, whoever they may be.

The first organised hospital was built in Cairo in 872CE. The Ahmad ibn Tûlûn Hospital treated and gave free medicine to all patients. It provided separate bath houses for men and women, a rich library and a section for the insane.

Patients deposited their street clothes with the hospital authorities for safe keeping, before donning special ward clothes and being assigned to their beds. Each patient would also have his or her own medical record.

Hospitals like these flourished as Muslim rulers competed to see who could construct the most dvanced centres. They spread all over the Muslim world reaching Sicily and North Africa.The earliest Muslim hospitals were funded by charitable religious endowments, called waqf, and some money from the state coffers was also used to maintain some hospitals.